


Weaver In A Golden Cage

by kiki_chu



Series: Yuri!!! On Ice Themed Weeks and Events [4]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Historical, Gen, Harems, Omega Katsuki Yuuri, Self-Sacrifice, silk road
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 09:35:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14998016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiki_chu/pseuds/kiki_chu
Summary: Yuuri's family travels along the Silk Road protecting their secret textile techniques and making beautiful cloth. Yuuri is happy, until he presents. Being an omega puts his entire family in danger and makes their current way of living impossible. They have no idea what they should do, and then Minako comes with a proposition for Yuuri.For Day 4 of YOI Omegaverse Week





	Weaver In A Golden Cage

**Author's Note:**

> For the Day Four prompts: Royalty and Pampering (although I only mention the first and didn't reach the latter)
> 
> Thanks to [Stars Gleam](http://stars-gleam.tumblr.com/) for beta reading.

When Yuuri remembers his childhood, he thinks of brief stays in tiny rooms, hasty departures, and long, long days at the back of a caravan on the Silk Road. His elder sister, Mari, tells him that someone wanted to steal the textile traditions handed down through generations of Katsukis, but Yuuri doesn’t remember that. He was a baby when they fled Japan.

 

Yuuri grows up creating fabric dye with Mari, making patterns with his father, Toshiya, and helping his mother, Hiroko, on the portable loom. Yuuri loves the cloth his family makes. He dreams of weaves in vivid colors. As he approaches maturity, his parents are sure that he will continue the Katsuki traditions into the future.

 

Then Yuuri presents as an omega at sixteen while his family is traveling with a caravan. His father, a low-dominance alpha, and Mari, a highly dominant beta, have to keep strangers from approaching the small tent where Yuuri’s mother sings him lullabies to comfort him through the pain of his body preparing itself for fertility.

 

Being an omega changes everything for Yuuri.

 

He can’t possibly carry on the Katsuki name now. Half the countries they pass through consider omegas to be little more than child bearers, and they hardly fair better in the other half. No matter what his parents tell him, Yuuri knows that they can’t continue to travel around like they have been. 

 

They leave the caravan and rent a small, two-roomed house in Ankara, intending to figure out what they were going to do before leaving. That’s where Okukawa Minako, a longtime family friend, finds them. Minako, a wisp of a woman who looks decades younger than she actually is, is a renowned dancer. Minako travels the world, accepting and rejecting requests from princes and peasants as she pleases. She has been called grace personified, and she’s also the most dominant alpha Yuuri knows. 

 

Yuuri is completely overwhelmed by her presence. His new instincts tell him to hide or expose his neck or belly in submission. The urge is worsened by the nearness of his heat. He manages to hold his ground as Minako greets his parents and Mari. They make small talk for a time, allowing Yuuri to steady himself, but then Minako’s eyes turn on him, and Yuuri can feel himself quiver.

 

“Yuuri, I’d like to speak with you privately.”

 

Yuuri nods, and Minako escorts him out to the open market. They are by no means alone, the market is bustling with people selling and purchasing goods, but the sheer mass of bodies all busy with their own business gives them a measure of anonymity.

 

Minako takes Yuuri to a booth covered in bolts of fabric. Everything from Egyptian linen to small pieces of fine Chinese silk are on display under the careful eye of the merchant. Yuuri and Minako sort through the fabric, and eventually Yuuri relaxes, just as he knows Minako intended.

 

That’s when she asks, “What do you intend to do now?”

 

Yuuri fidgets with a stray thread and hunches his shoulders. He knew this was coming but had hoped to put it off a little longer.

 

“Yuuri, you can’t avoid this.”

 

“I know.” His voice is so tiny he can hardly hear himself. “I can’t stay with them. Me being like this will just make things harder.”

 

“Trying to protect a young, eligible omega on the road could get them killed,” Minako tells him, not bothering to soften reality. “It’s already getting difficult for Toshiya and Hiroko to stay on the move as it is.”

 

It’s the truth. His parents are getting older, and Yuuri can see the longing in their eyes on the occasions they stay in buildings instead of pitching tents. Yuuri knows that they were trying to save enough to set up somewhere permanent. Having to pay to keep and protect an omega would eat at what savings they had managed to accumulate, and after his parents are gone Mari would have to take over. He would be a weight shackling someone forever.

 

“What should I do?” Minako must be bringing this up for a reason. His mother must have written about their situation, and she must have come up with some sort of scheme to help them.

 

“Yuuri, have you considered how valuable you are?” Yuuri is about to object, but Minako doesn’t give him the opportunity. “You’re skilled in weaving and silk production, as well as special dyeing techniques. In certain hands that knowledge could disrupt trade along the Silk Road. You’re valuable.”

 

“I’m not that special.”

 

“Yuuri, the Minister of the Right ordered that your family should be brought back or killed to prevent the secrets of Japanese silk production from leaking.”

 

Yuuri knows that. There are reasons why his family keeps on the move when it would be far easier to set up a workshop and gain citizenship somewhere. However, Yuuri has never tied the bane of his family’s existence to any worth he might have personally.

 

“Added to that you’re rare, a male omega. As a Japanese, you’re exotic in this part of the world.”

 

There’s a sinking feeling in Yuuri’s stomach. “What are you hinting at?”

 

“The way I see it you have two options.” Minako holds up s single finger. “You can take a mate. There might be some difficulties since you have no dowry or status, but between your looks and knowledge you should be able to secure someone wealthy or influential enough to keep you safe.”

 

Yuuri is shocked. Yuuri grew up seeing how much his parents cared for each other and had absently expected to have a similar relationship someday, although he had never really thought about being together with someone much less marriage.

 

“Or,” Minako continues, raising a second finger. “You can enter a harem.”

 

That’s even worse than marriage to a stranger. 

 

Yuuri lets out a strangled noise. “What?”

 

Minako runs a finger down one bolt of beaded brocade before shaking her head. “The Sultan is looking to add to his harem. He’ll pay a sizable bride price for someone unique enough to pique his interest.”

 

“And you think he would want someone like me?”

 

Minako shrugs. “I think you’d be perfect. I’ve heard he has a couple of male omegas, but I doubt that he has any Japanese concubines. He definitely doesn’t have anyone with your skill and knowledge.”

 

This is what it has come to for him, Yuuri realizes. He’s going to trade away his body and knowledge because he can’t think of any other way to safely remove the burden of himself from his family.

 

“Alright.” Yuuri says before he can think more about it.

 

“Yuuri, if you accept-“ Minako stops, surprised. 

 

She clearly expects to have to do more convincing to get Yuuri to go with this plan. But Yuuri knows there’s no other option. Joining the harem would give his family money, citizenship, and the Sultan’s protection.

 

Minako escorts him home, partially to keep him safe but mostly to help explain things to his parents and sister. The next week his first true heat hits. Hiroko burns fragrant incense around the house, and Minako joins Mari and Toshiya in guarding the home. Yuuri spends the week locked in a tiny, windowless room. Yuuri’s burning, but feels comforted by the darkness and humidity in his few moments of lucidity. Something wet is leaking down his thighs, but he can’t spare a moment of embarrassment as he thrashes and moans into his sheets. He’s cramping and his body aches for something that Yuuri has never experienced. 

 

After his heat is over he leaves the room sore, tired, and so very embarrassed, but there is no time for him to recover himself. Minaka spent the time he was incapacitated overcoming his family’s objections, and he only has a week to finish his preparations to leave. Yuuri keeps himself busy and does his best to not think about how after a few short days he will never see his family again, or about how he will very likely be spending his next heat with a complete stranger.

 

His remaining time passes too quickly. Bright and early on the day of his departure, Yuuri squeezes each member of his family in a tight, lingering hug. His mother peppers his face with kisses, his father tries to smile despite his teary-eyes, and Mari remains stone faced. 

 

Yuuri is dressed like a geisha on Minako’s advice. He can’t cry with his face covered in hours worth of makeup work, and his hair is gelled back. His spectacles are packed away in one of his few bags. He can almost not breathe, draped as he was in multiple layers made from the finest fabrics his family had. 

 

All Yuuri leaves with is a chest of clothes, a chest of tools for textile work, and a small bag of personal effects. He walks with steady feet and stony resolve. He leaves behind his family, who will be well taken care of once Minako delivers Yuuri to the Sultan; his parents will have their home with a workshop, and Mari will have her caravan stop.

 

Yuuri enters the Sultan’s seraglio looking like a princess. He doesn’t look back.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading ♥
> 
> I was going to write something revolving around Yuuri's interactions with Viktor in the harem, but I started wondering about how Yuuri got there, and then I suddenly had dozens of open tabs on the Ottoman Empire and the Silk Road. I never quite made it to where I intended, but this story will have at least one more chapter as I would like to at least introduce Viktor.


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